Earotica: The Life and Times of Rosa Lee-The Library Review

One of my absolutely favorite bands from the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC, area during grad school was The Mayflies USA. Catchy songwriting and shiny guitar sounds of the Brit-pop variety with a smidgen of Big Star overflowed within this four-some, and it was a sad day for all of us when their operations ceased.

Mayflies guitarist/co-vocalist Matt Long moved to Brooklyn to help co-found Sound Foundation, a "music resource for advertising, an industry-guide for multi-level creative searches, and a sound studio for the moving picture," and started up a new band, The Library. The group, consisting of Jason Caperton (The Comas), Blake Courlang (Seamonsters), and lap pedal steel player Jeremy Burnworth, just released their debut EP, The Life & Times of Rosa Lee, on iTunes/Amazon.

While the Mayflies sound had the heavy drum/cymbal beat and fuzzy ringing Liverpudlian-guitars that spoke to their two-fold love of mid-60s Mersey Beat bands and Alex Chilton, The Library tangents off from the softer aspects of those two with keyboards and quiet guitars guiding the way. Long takes on lead singer duties with The Library, and his higher vocal range pairs nicely with the ethereal dream-state sound that runs throughout Rosa Lee's seven tracks; a deeper voice would have bruised their delicate skin. Along with the mournful melancholy of Burnworth's pedal steel and guest musician Carla Capretto's [Jesse Malin, Travis Pickle] piano and keyboards, these tracks are turned into what could almost be indie hymns for a Sunday morning.

Give a Listen: Nothing to Lose-The Library

(The Library is playing NYC's Bowery Electric on 10/20 and The Living Room on 11/19.)

Seen Your Video: Archers of Loaf's "Harnessed in Slums"

One of the very best things about where I did my graduate work (Raleigh and Chapel Hill, NC) was its music scene. The Triangle as it's called, has been so flush with amazing musical talent over the years, it's almost surreal. I got lucky to see Slobberbone in a local Chapel Hill establishment the size of a closet (Local 506), Whiskeytown in a Raleigh bar the size of a basement (The Brewery), and Tres Chicas, Patty Hurst Shifter, Mayflies USA in a converted garage...But the one band I would have killed to see but just missed when I arrived was Archers of Loaf.

"Harnessed in Slums" is one of my all time favorite songs from them. I would even go so far as to say "Slums" is a perfect specimen of an AoL song: Eric Bachmann's energetic and sneering delivery atop loud and brash playing, with the surprise of a mad-catchy hook where and when you least expect it.

The video for this song captures all that perfectly: AoL as the house band for a bingo game. Trouble ensues when a young whippersnapper wins, and the old folks start a riot. The old guy tipping over the table is so bad-ass!